


The Universe Starts with You

by Aquari



Series: The Universe Starts with You [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Elemental Magic, Fantasy, Magic, Mystery, Mystica, Mystical Creatures, Original Character(s), Original work - Freeform, Parallel Universes, Science, Science and Magic, Science as Magic, parallel worlds, scifi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 22:54:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29724483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aquari/pseuds/Aquari
Summary: It was happening again. The disappearances. Small, and insignificant as they were at first, some of them began to take notice. Notable figures suddenly, just, gone. No one had an explanation, and the whereabouts of the lost is still a mystery. There is only one answer left, and that is the darkness once more is spreading. I will not sit idly by and let it take the world, again. Not this time.
Series: The Universe Starts with You [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2184567
Kudos: 3





	The Universe Starts with You

Once, the world was a fine place.

The sun shone in the afternoon sky, illuminating the world in a warm blanket of life giving energy. At night, the moon reflected that ever present light so as to always bathe the earth in warmth.

What we didn't know was why the light would always shine, and what would happen should it ever go out.  
People started disappearing.

Not enough to initially spark a panic, but enough that, when we looked back in history to try to find a clue to help us reconcile what happened, we can see it. The steady increase around the world of disappearances.

And then the power went out, and the world ended.

Not in the literal sense, at first. On our end of the world at least. A minor inconvenience in the middle of the day, until we realized it wasn't just here. It was everywhere.   
And the other side of the world? Went completely dark. No communication came through any medium from literally half of the world. As if they had all gone quiet just as the power went out. 

Oh? Yeah the power went out but there are ways to know things are still working through satellite frequencies - no power needed since they're always on. So while we could still communicate to specific parties, no one could hear the other side of the world, even on the airwaves.

We found out that night what happened to them. 

As the sunlight began to fade, people started disappearing in broad daylight. Flashes here and a short scream there the only giveaways that anything was happening, until it happens to you and your mom disappears right before your eyes. 

Just, gone. Pulled into the darkness that was spreading like a red wine stain on a white carpet.

Not everyone experienced the disappearances the same way - some people still had no idea anything was even going on, right to the last second before everything went dark.

Anyone who survived the first night started leaving the cities almost immediately. We knew the sunlight could protect us, but we didn't know for how long we could keep ourselves in the light when the darkness had started actively taking us. Because that's what it was - a living darkness that was taking everyone at every given opportunity.

Walk too close to the darker shadows of a back alley and vanish, just like all the others. 

So little by little we all came to the same conclusion that a more open area would be more defensible. Sunlight is not impeded on an open field, after all. But what about the night? Artificial light was almost nonexistent thanks to the global power outage, but there were still plenty of battery-operated light sources and, of course, fire is plenty bright in the darkest of nights. 

As long as we stayed within the protective reach of whatever light we could find, we could survive another night. But then, not all light can be trusted either. The darkness began fabricating light, giving us a taste of the real world again. Streetlights would flicker on and off, amid an otherwise blacked out street block. Houses would light up, inviting any who glimpse their glow in the dark to venture closer in search of shelter. 

Once in those lights, however, the darkness would quickly overcome them, and they would vanish, too.

“Do not trust a light that you do not know the source of” became the one and only rule we could cling to - the only solace we had - that a light we created could not betray us like a light given freely. 

Then the sun began to dim.

It wasn't noticeable at first and came on much more slowly than the power outage. Three months, living in fear of the dark, and one day it just seemed...darker, in the middle of the day. Not like it was cloudy though, no. More like a computer screen whose backlight has been dimmed a bit, just a little. As the days continued, it became clear the sun was dimming. The one shining hope we had was failing for some reason. If there were any scientists who knew what was going on, they didn't have the means to tell the rest of us out here anyway. The only thing to do was wait and anticipate the sun going dark, too. 

People really began to get desperate then. Interaction with the shadows was obviously avoided, but with people? At first, we wanted to be together - more people means more hands for lighting fires or holding flashlights and batteries. But when the sun started dimming people became greedy, hoarding matches, candles, batteries. Anything they could get their hands on to make light, they took. They fought over quantities and kicked people from groups in anticipation for needing light longer. A smaller group means less light is needed to cover less ground after all. 

I had stayed away from the start. Once my mom disappeared, I was alone and, as things got worse, I kept to myself and hid from the shadows and other people. Maybe that is why I was able to see it for myself. 

The thing about humans is that we do have the ability to manifest the things we can imagine. Through science and technology, if we can dream it, it can be, and this was our saving grace. As what was left of humanity prepared for the sun to fail, a thought began to spread among the people. Never said aloud - it was a simple idea that individuals all thought of, independently but at the same time, all over the world. 

What if we could emit light ourselves? If our very skin radiated light, could we be free from the fear of the shadows taking us? 

And it was so that the first human's DNA mutated with the force of this universal wish and the first was borne. A human, on the brink of being taken by the darkness, suddenly began to glow. An inner light that repealed the shadows and kept them safe for the night. And again, it happened again to another, and another. Until all those who were left standing in the end could glow on their own and survive the eternal night the earth had fallen into. 

This is the story of how the gods came into being. The beginning of the new age of man, after the fall of the first history of the world and the rebirth of the new world.  
After they began to glow, other mutations happened. Some gained super strength, others were able to command the elements. Still others could heal the sick and dying. All manner of power was unlocked once we evolved enough to reach new heights. All was again well as the new humans began to reclaim their lost world from the darkness that could only watch as its prey stood just out of reach.

This is the story of the next step from this evolution. The return of the original humans. Not the ones who vanished, but entirely new individuals who seemed to pop into existence almost overnight. Later, it was discovered that some of the new humans could manipulate time and we had all actually gone over a millennia later. The entire evolutionary process had had time to repeat itself and humans once again walked the earth. We watched as they began to rebuild a world that seemed so familiar yet different in many ways. We tried to intervene when we could, to steer some away from making past mistakes again. Sometimes we succeeded, other times we did not. Either way, we became known as gods, and as the disturbingly familiar myths from a millennia ago began to take shape, knowing it was not the gods we knew but us, a horrifying question began to form. However, unlike the last time, a huge evolutionary shift was on the brink of tipping us into insanity with this question: Had this happened before? Were we the first to know, or were we in a horrifying loop that started with the dawn of human civilization and ended with the world swallowed by darkness? The gods, borne from the light of the souls of the last humans who make it to the end, only to repeat the process a millennia latter?   
I want to know the answer, and for that, I must leave this safe place where I have made a home. My forest is vast and bright. The saddest of all the worldly havens still left from the old world. Though the shadows are weak once again, I fear for the coming darkness if our suspicion is correct. I am no longer the person I was a thousand lifetimes ago, but I do not want to stand by and watch it happen again. With knowledge, and my powers of healing, and my light shining brightly as ever, I will step back into the world of man and solve this mystery. I will not let the world fall to darkness again without a fight.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading my story. Feedback is appreciated.


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